In anticipation of various medical procedures, or even for use with certain medical procedures, catheter(s), and other medical tubing are utilized by many individuals. These devices are principally used to provide a passageway into a user's body for insertion of medical instruments, administration of fluids and gases, and drainage or measurements of a user's bodily fluid(s), among other uses. Some exemplary catheters include peripheral intravenous catheters (PIVCs), peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs), central venous catheters (CVCs), implantable ports, Huber needles, dialysis catheters, among others.
After the catheterization process, or the act of inserting a catheter into a user's body is complete, ensuring the catheter is stabilized is one of the most essential requirements. One known method to stabilize catheters includes suturing the catheter to the user's skin. This intrusive method has obvious disadvantages such as increased infection risk, potential scaring from the suturing, and causing additional pain and discomfort to the user during and after the catheterization process. Many medical practitioners also utilize medical grade tape and/or commercially available “dressings” having an adhesive bottom layer to secure the catheter to the user's body. Employing tape and/or dressings, however, have many disadvantageous. Many of these known devices and methods often do not provide a barrier for bacteria, nor do they permit sufficient fluid/moisture transfer from the catheter insertion site to the outside ambient environment. Further, many of these devices and methods also do not allow a user to adequately view the insertion site or ensure the integrity of the catheter stabilization device. Even more problematically, when the tape or dressing is needed or desired to be changed, the removal or attempted removal of the tape or dressing causes displacement of the catheter. In many instances, the displacement or dislodgment of the catheter causes pain or discomfort to the user, and may also require the medical practitioner to engage in a new catheterization process.
Some known devices and methods attempt to solve some of the above-described catheter-stability deficiencies by utilizing rigid plastic or metallic retaining members shaped and sized to surround a portion of the catheter, typically the hub or collar portion. As those of skill in the art will appreciate, catheters are made in various shapes and sizes depending on their use and/or application. As such, medical practitioners and/or medical treatment facility administrators are required to buy catheter stabilization devices for various corresponding catheters. Moreover, for emergency situations or other situations where time is of-the-essence, utilizing these rigid fasteners are commercially and medically impracticable. Even worse, if the wrong sized fastener is utilized, it could cause displacement of the catheter. Lastly, those fasteners made of a metallic material are also problematic as they are incompatible for use in some diagnostic machines, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Some known medical dressings solely utilize the bond of adhesive material itself to a users' skin to retain the catheter. In addition to some of the above-described disadvantageous, these dressings cause an effect called “tenting,” wherein a portion of the dressing does not adhere to the user's skin. The larger the tent results in a reduced dwell time and retention performance of the dressing. Therefore, the larger the catheter the reduced performance.
Therefore, a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.